Member's book helps foster parents to 'Love You From Right Here'

Samaritan member Jamie Sandefer is a foster parent with her husband, Jason, and she wants to help other foster parents help the children they care for.

Her first book, Love You From Right Here: A Keepsake Book for Children in Foster Care (to be published on May 2), is an illustrated children’s book geared to help foster parents and foster children work through the emotions that inevitably arise in such a situation. It’s a study in acceptance and love.

Jamie writes on her web site:

“Love You From Right Here” came from the longing to give (their first foster child) the comfort and stability I was desperate to give her and she was desperate to receive. I wrote a simple book from the foster mom’s perspective directed to the foster child. It’s a story that can be ready quickly every day to a child who is experiencing a roller coaster of emotions. It doesn’t highlight the negative associations with the child’s previous placements, but rather provides a picture of unconditional love.

The last few pages of the book provide lists to record memories of the child’s time in the foster home, a place to put photos, and space to make other notes, turning it into a keepsake to which the child can return..

You can find out more about Love You From Right Here, which was illustrated by Pamela Goodman, at jamiesandefer.com.